When we talk about artificial intelligence (AI) – which we have done lot recently, including my outline on The Conversation of liability and regulation issues – what do we actually mean? AI experts and philosophers are beavering away on the issue. But having a usable definition of AI – and soon – is vital for regulation and governance because laws and policies simply will not operate without one. This definition problem crops up in all regulatory contexts, from ensuring truthful use of the term "AI" in product advertising right through to establishing how next-generation automated weapons systems (AWSs) are treated under the laws of war. True, we may eventually need more than one definition (just as "goodwill" means different things in different contexts). But we have to start somewhere so, in the absence of a regulatory definition at the moment, let's get the ball rolling.

A week ago, the venerable law firm BakerHostetler announced a new hire, Ross. Ross is joining the bankruptcy department of the 100-year-old firm. Despite being new to practicing law -- BakerHostetler is Ross' first job -- Ross brings a myriad of skills to the role. In addition to reading and understanding language, Ross can also "postulate hypotheses when asked questions, research, and then generate responses (along with references and citations) to back up its conclusions." You've guessed it: Ross is the world's first artificially intelligent "lawyer," based on IBM's Watson. High-profile AI flops like Microsoft's Tay and Facebook's glitchy chatbots may have created the impression that artificial intelligence isn't quite ready for prime time, but Watson is hitting home run after home run.

The Bank of St George, founded in 1407 in the Italian Republic of Genova, is one of the world's oldest banks. It was so powerful that it governed many of Genova's possessions on the republic's behalf. This power was based on accumulated capital. The power of accumulated capital can still dominate international affairs, but a new form of power is also emerging, that of accumulated data through loyalty cards, text messages, credit card transactions, web browsing and social networking. Data is the new currency.

We need to have a public debate about acceptable personal privacy data collecting and sharing - as well as acceptable conduct for data science experiments conducted by government and private businesses, especially online controlled experiments involving human subjects - and codify acceptable (ethical and legal) practices into laws and professional codes of conduct. Furthermore, we need to carefully consider the ethics, legality and potential negative consequences of new financial trading, credit-scoring, human resource hiring and firing, political, marketing and advertising data science (e.g., algorithms, machine learning...et al.) techniques that rely on personal private data.

Today our focus has been on KPIs, ERP, WMS, TMS, YMS, EDI, The Cloud, S and OP, 3 D Printing, IoT, IoE, Drones: Same Hour/Day/Time Delivery to Customers, Cyber Security, Theft, Government Regulations, E-Commerce, Omni-Channel, Modeling/Simulation, Risk Management, Tracking, Traceability, Re-shoring, Robotics, et al, but…what about Artificial Intelligence or AI technologies? AI is a controversy of deep, lasting dimensions. Will machines learn to think like humans…and then outthink us? The application of AI technologies has created the ability to understand, store and use product information in an entirely new way. AI technologies allow you to understand the underlying grammatical structure, the product DNA, used to build each product, together with all natural variations that potentially exist.

PAPIs is the premier forum for the presentation of new machine learning APIs, techniques, architectures and tools to build predictive applications. It is a community conference that brings together practitioners from industry, government and academia to present new developments, identify new needs and trends, and discuss the challenges of building real-world predictive applications. PAPIs '16 is the 3rd International conference on predictive applications and APIs, featuring 3 tracks (Technical, Business, Research) and the 1st AI Startup Battle where the jury is an AI. The audience is a mix of developers, software engineers, all-round data scientists, machine learning specialists, researchers, decision makers, managers, strategists and innovators. Previous editions took place in Sydney (PAPIs '15), Barcelona (PAPIs '14), Paris and Valencia (PAPIs Connect).

It sounds like the punchline from a joke. A law firm has hired the world's first artificially intelligent lawyer. According to Futurism, the lawyer has been named Ross. Ross was built on IBM's cognitive computer, Watson. IBM describes Watson as "a technology platform that uses natural language processing and machine learning to reveal insights from large amounts of unstructured data."

A Law Firm Just Hired Its First Artificial Intelligence Attorney . While only a portion of the typical attorney's work involves legal research and creation of memoranda of law and tables of authorities, AI Ross can apparently understand natural language queries, perform legal research, and spit out memoranda of law and answers without human intervention. A human lawyer can then evaluate the response, and advise clients accordingly. Will AI lawyers take over the practice, or will they just enhance the ability of the lawyers still working? What if clients decide that the quaility of the work product and the answers of the AI computer give them the option to cut out the middleman?

The race to "cure death" has gripped Silicon Valley. In 2012, Google hired Ray Kurzweil, the'futurist' inventor best known for popularizing the idea of the "technological singularity," a hypothetical'super-intelligence' that will one day vastly outstrip the capacities of human beings. As Google's Director of Engineering, Kurzweil's job is to turn the fantasies of science fiction into consumer products -- and Google has invested billions in hopes that Kurzweil's dreams could one day become reality. One notable project, called "Calico," was announced the year after Kurzweil joined Google: a secretive biotech firm researching age-related diseases and developing anti-aging technology. Soon, Kurzweil promises, age and disease will disappear altogether, giving way to "software-based humans" with holographically projected bodies.

Baker & Hostetler is the first law firm to announce that it will use a ground-breaking artificial intelligence product for legal research. The law firm will license Ross Intelligence in its bankruptcy practice, report the Am Law Daily (sub. The research product uses IBM's Watson technology, which is designed to get smarter as it is used. Ross responds to lawyers' questions in natural language by reading through the law, gathering evidence and drawing inferences. The program learns from the lawyers who use it to refine its search results.